This invention relates to electronradiography and in particular, to a new and improved imaging chamber for providing directly viewable and copyable images. The conventional electronradiography system has an x-ray absorber and electron and positive ion emitter in a gap between electrodes. Incoming radiation is absorbed in the gap and the emitted electrons and positive ions are attracted toward the corresponding electrodes. A dielectric receptor sheet is positioned at one or both of the electrodes and electrostatic charge images are formed on the receptor sheets. The receptor sheet is removed from the imaging chamber and the electrostatic charge image is developed into a visual image by application of toner particles following conventional xerographic techniques. This results in a hard copy x-ray image which closely resembles the conventional x-ray film transparency. An electronradiography system utilizing gas as the absorber is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,029. An electronradiography system utilizing liquid absorber is shown in copending application Ser. No. 456,532, filed Apr. 1, 1974, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,833 and assigned to the same assignee as the present application.
The conventional electronradiography machine which produces the hard copy requires a number of moving parts for loading the receptor sheet into the imaging chamber and transferring the receptor sheet to developing and fixing stations, and also utilizes consumables which are replaced at intervals.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved electronradiography system for producing a directly viewable image at the imaging chamber utilizing the charge image while omitting the receptor sheet and its attendant handling requirements. The visual image may be viewed directly, may be photographed, and may be recorded electronically for transmission and/or storage. Such an imaging chamber requires no moving parts nor any consumable materials.